Vandread: Ice & Flame
by metroanime
Summary: just taking a look at two "also ran"


DISCLAIMER: VanDread and all characters are by Takeshi Mori and Studio Gonzo and Pioneer Entertainment.  
  
  
[VanDread] Ice  
  
How did this happen to me?  
  
It was amply demonstrated to me that people will fail you. Emotional attachments weaken you and form distractions you can ill afford in battle.  
  
We're pirates. Any of us may die in our next encounter. I've seen pilots get sloppy because their lover was in harm's way. Whether it is Majere or Tarak we're raiding, we can end our lives in a pillar of fire before we know what has hit us.  
  
I envy Pyoro. Slightly. Machines simply do their jobs without such considerations. Efficient. Focussed. Simple.  
  
Everything was simpler before we raided that clumsy large ship from Tarak. Everything was simpler before *him.*  
  
Does anyone know? Surely not.  
  
Commander Magno herself said it. We two are alike. The difference is that he wears his heart on his sleeve. I keep my cards hidden.  
  
My fa-ma and my oh-ma. The trip from the quarantined zone. The relationships afterward. Open your heart and all you do is let in pain. I shielded my heart, wrapped it in ice. Focus on duty, on responsibility.  
  
I took command of the Dreads by dedicating myself utterly to my job - no other considerations to distract. Efficient. Focussed. Simple.  
  
Then him.  
  
He is an alien! A male! An enemy!   
  
He is like myself. He is an ally. He is a warrior who takes his duties seriously.  
  
He struggles with doubts and forces me to confront that I have the same ones. He struggles with the need to defend and the need to be independent. He struggles with the need to be a part of the whole.  
  
Just like me.  
  
Ask almost anyone. I am the leader of the Dread force. I have no heart, no feelings.  
  
How did he find them? How did he end up there?  
  
He also struggles to find his place. Neither I nor he are used to this mingling. Not alien after all, merely two parts of the same species. Male and female, yin and yang.  
  
Dita has staked a claim, even if she and he would deny it or admit ignorance on the matter. It was not until later when my eyes opened and I saw more than I was raised to believe.  
  
I am ice. I have no heart. I am the leader of the Dread force. I have no business with feelings like this.  
  
Yet Dita may yet drive him off. In which case what do I do?  
  
For now I can content myself sitting back and watching Dita and he. They make a good couple mostly. If Dita can get over simply seeing him as "her alien" and seeing the person.  
  
If not?  
  
Do I even want to think about what that might entail?  
  
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This piece was written to take place about episode 11 or 12. After Rabat's initial appearance, before Vandread 2 (which i haven't seen.). It's obvious in Japanese formula where the relations will go, though i can still hope to be surprised there.  
  
It struck me while watching the "Pressure" DVD that Meia Gisborn would be the female lead char if the series was American made. The tough survivor who is trying to live again. Whereas Dita is the lead female char because the series is Japanese in origin. Ah well.  
  
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VanDread: Flame  
  
I am straightforward, I am what you see. Some call me shallow, but how many people conceal themselves through masks and false seemings only to reveal themselves at last as hollow?  
  
Few truly know me though. They may say that I'm superficial, yet am I not one of the premiere Dread pilots aboard the Nirvana?   
  
In truth, most if not all are as concerned with appearance and prestige as I am. If not even more so. I am simply open about such things.  
  
We are pirates. Magno had few choices back when our colony went dead, and so the choices were simple. Live or die? There's really no glory in dying. We couldn't go find a habitable system outside the Tarak-Majere system. Even the two worlds of Tarak and Majere are barely habitable - no other worlds in that system. So farming or forming another colony was out.  
  
Scavengers have long survived when other species died out. Something the Captain said years ago.  
  
Can I help it if I want to be glorious while I survive? Mediocre day-to-day survival is so... pathetic. I don't handle pathetic well, I'll admit it myself. The least you can do is look good surviving!  
  
Of course I'm interested in that boy. No, not in that way. Well, maybe not. I *do* like to try new things.  
  
When he's popular, my own popularity will be enhanced by association, so of course I'm interested. Otherwise, there's good old Barnette to fall back on.   
  
Those who know me, don't judge me on the scale as Meia. Who really needs to loosen up some. Or Dita, who is a nice girl and all, even if her elevator stops a few floors below Paiway's and Paiway isn't exactly genius material if you ask me.   
  
I am drawn to the interesting, the popular, and the beautiful. And why not? The only coin we truly have in this life is the time that we invest in any given pursuit. I feel best about myself at my most beautiful, and by associating with the beautiful - so enhances my own beauty further. Almost everyone else is the same way.  
  
Well, excepting Meia. And BC. And Magno, most of the time. And Parfet - though it may just be her own skewed ideas of beauty.  
  
As we are pirates, we may well all die tomorrow. Live well, with beauty and glory to the victors.  
  
Ugly is something for those who have lost and will die.  
  
Perhaps this is superficial or shallow, but can you look deep into your own soul and say you are not the same?  
  
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Jura Basil Elden & Barnette Orangello form the existing partnership/lovers within the Nirvana microcosm. Just exploring Jura's character a bit.  
  
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End file.
